members of the PLÉIADEand sympathetic towards their
poetic program. His early success, notably a course of lec-
tures in Paris in the early 1550s attended by a numerous
audience that included the French king, brought him
many enemies, who succeeded in getting him thrown into
prison on a charge of sexual impropriety. From 1555 he
made his home in Venice, then settled in Rome under the
patronage of Cardinal Ippolito d’Este. Apart from a brief
return visit to France (1561–63) he remained in Rome for
the rest of his life, lecturing and building up an immense
reputation as a Latin stylist. MONTAIGNE, a student of his,
called him “le meilleur orateur du temps.” As a classical
scholar he wrote commentaries on Cicero, Sallust, Plau-
tus, and the elegiac poets, and his Variae lectiones was
published in Venice in 1559.
Muris, Johannes de (c. 1300–c. 1350) French music
theorist
Born in Normandy, he studied in Paris and spent some
time at the Collège de Sorbonne there, otherwise traveling
extensively through France. He knew Philippe de VITRY,
and was influential in developing a theory of measured
music. His Ars nove musice (1321) is his most important
work, dealing with the notions of sound and musical pro-
portions.
Murner, Thomas (1475–1537) German satirist
Born in Alsace, Murner grew up in Strasbourg and took
orders as a Franciscan friar there (1491). He then studied
theology and taught at Fribourg, Cologne, Paris, Rostock,
and Cracow, and later studied law at Basle. His popular ap-
peal was evident in both his preaching and his writing, in
his use of familiar sayings and imagery combined with a
love of the grotesque and scurrilous. More biting than Se-
bastian BRANT’s gentle satire, Murner’s was directed first at
folly in general, as in the rhyming verses of Die Nar-
renbeschweerung (Fools’ exorcism; 1512), modeled on
Brant’s Narrenschyff. Although highly critical of Church
corruption, he found Luther too iconoclastic and took
up the cudgels for Catholicism. In Von dem grossen
Lutherischen Narren, wie in doctor Murner beschworen hat
(Of the great Lutheran fool, as Doctor Murner has exor-
cised him; 1522), he vitriolically attacked the Reforma-
tion. Other works apart from satires include anti-Lutheran
pamphlets, theological works in Latin, and a translation of
Virgil’s Aeneid into German verse.
Muscovy Company (Russian Company) A group of
English merchants trading with Russia. The company was
founded in 1552 by merchants desiring a NORTHEAST PAS-
SAGEto China and India. In 1553 the founders sponsored
a three-ship expedition under Sir Hugh Willoughby (died
1554), but only one reached Russia. Its captain, Richard
CHANCELLOR, was entertained by Tsar Ivan IV, who
promised free trade rights. In 1555 the company obtained
a monopoly on Anglo-Russian trade. A thriving relation-
ship with Russia developed, although attempts in the late
1550s to establish a similar link with Persia, principally
through the efforts of Anthony JENKINSON, proved
abortive. In the 17th century the company lost its privi-
leges in England and Russia, and was forced to compete
with other English and Dutch companies, but survived to
re-emerge as a prominent force in 18th-century trading.Muses The nine goddesses who, in classical mythology,
were patronesses of various individual art forms. Al-
though they were the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne
(Memory), they are often depicted as companions of
APOLLOin their role of inspirers of music and the divine
creative power. Their names and the arts over which they
presided were: Calliope, epic poetry; Clio, history; Erato,
erotic poetry; Euterpe, lyric poetry; Melpomene, tragedy;
Polyhymnia, sacred music; Terpsichore, dancing; Thalia,
comedy; Urania, astronomy. Each was depicted with her
conventional attributes: Urania with a staff and globe, Eu-
terpe with a flute, etc. They feature collectively or indi-
vidually in Renaissance allegorical and decorative
schemes, and the appropriate Muse was conventionally
invoked by writers.museums See CABINETSmusic In the Renaissance period musicians, like artists
and writers, began to sense the emergence of a new age.
Writing in 1477, Johannes TINCTORISstated that music
written more than 40 years previously was not worth
hearing. He goes on to list the composers of his own pe-
riod who had brought the art to its current state of perfec-
tion: those, like OCKEGHEM, who learned from the
example set by DUNSTABLE, BINCHOIS, and DUFAY. After the
barren period of the Dark Ages, composers sought models
for their works. Unlike those active in other fields, musi-
cians had no direct examples to follow in trying to resur-
rect the learning and styles of the classical era. This
proved frustrating at a time when sculptors and architects,
at least in Italy, were discovering the legacy of antiquity all
around them. The musician was forced to look to trends
in other arts to discover which direction his own should
take.
Of the sparse references to music in classical writings
the most influential was surely the Platonic dictum that
the music should be subservient to the text. This contin-
ued to influence musicians throughout the Renaissance,
and the principle was even cited as the reason for the ad-
vent of another “new age” which we now call the early
BAROQUE. Late Renaissance enthusiasm for such humanist
ideals led to some rather extreme applications, such as
Jean-Antoine de BAÏF’s Académie de la Poésie et de la
Musique; the word setting practiced by those associated
with this institution rigidly adhered to the poetic meters—mmuussiicc 3 32277